Glitter Mountain

For our Sunday Hike this week we drove to Glitter Mountain. It seemed a lot cooler hearing about it and seeing pictures people had posted than it actually was. The 2 older kids were unimpressed, Bryce did gather up a few glitter rocks and seemed happy about it. There wasn't really much of a hike either, but you could take a little stroll around the mine, which is how glitter mountain got it's name, it's actually an old Selenite/Gypsum mine. At least we got out of the house I guess, and can now mark that off as one of the nearby sites we have visited in our area. 

#GlitterMountain #sundayhikes

General Conference

General Conference (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) was a lot different this year than in the past. We still watched it at home on our tv's the main difference being was that nobody was in attendance to the actual conference and there was no live choir. Usually there are thousands of people who attend each session each day and a huge choir who sings, but not this year. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic things have changed drastically. The good news, was even though the format was a little bit different, we still got to hear many inspired messages from our prophets and church leaders and were able to feel the spirit and be inspired during this troubled time. 

Riding

We had my Mom and Jeff's 4 wheeler at our house for a few weeks, so we decided to take the kids out a let them ride for a bit one Saturday to break up the boredom, setting in from being home so much. They had a blast just cruising around the hills and I enjoyed some good quality time in the sun with my book.

Off Road Adventure-Destination Grand Canyon

We all needed to get out of the house and get away from the craziness, so we decided to take an adventure. We loaded the camp trailer and headed out. Our plan was to drive down the Arizona Strip until we found somewhere to stop and camp for a few days.

The first night we kept saying that spot looks nice, but we just kept going and going through horrible muddy roads, down roads the trailer maybe shouldn't have been on, until finally we stopped. The place were we ended up stopping was just a few miles from the back rim of the Grand Canyon. I think we were all happy to stop, because being on a dirt road for that amount of time can take it's tole on you.

This picture shows you just how muddy the road we had been on was. Also the camp site shows you how desolate of an area we were in. No one else around, no phone service whatsoever either.

 The next morning we unhooked the trailer and drove to the Grand Canyon. We have never been to the Grand Canyon before so the views were pretty awesome, despite the road we had to travel to get there.

 After exploring by the Grand Canyon for awhile we headed back to camp. Chloe did some Target practice and Bryce did some exploring. We decided to move a little closer to civilization for the 2nd night. 

We had a good weekend. It was for sure an adventure, sometimes the unplanned ones are some of the funnest and I'm sure it's a memory the kids will always remember. 

A Glimpse Into our New Normal

With COVID-19 our lives all changed. Landon and I both started working from home, something especially challenging for me, as it's not easy to work with special needs students via online chats and emails, but I made the best of it. Landon procured my sewing room and turned it into his new office. I think he kind of likes it, his biggest challenge being that Bryce wants his attention a lot since he is home so he has to balance that with getting done what he needs too. 

The kids both did their learning and school online. Not so much of a change for Chloe as a few of her classes were already done this way..the biggest thing for her was managing her time and missing the social aspect of school and of course missing out on her softball season. Bryce easily adapted and would get up early every morning and quickly get his lessons done-going back to regular school next year will definitely need some adaption time. 

A lot of lessons took place on the sidewalk-art/spelling practice. 

We would take pictures of all Bryce's assignments and upload them to be grade or recorded. He also had weekly Zoom Meetings with his class, which could be very interesting.

Science became a little more hands on as we had to make a lot of projects to go along with the lessons.

Art Projects

(Bryce had to recreate a famous work of art and include himself in it-Chloe helped him with this one)

(He also had to make a color wheel from objects around the house)

History Lessons

Daniel Boone guided drawing

There was a lot more free time in our schedules especially in the evenings so Landon and Bryce took to building puzzles. 

Parade's became the new reality as a way for teachers and students to see each other. We went on a parade to each of our students houses-it was fun to see them all in person again. 

Since I was home a lot more than normal I did a lot of organizing. I bought so many plastic bins and totes-Ha!

Thoughtful/Funny Gifts

The school board and PTO dropped by with several surprises during the quarantine. And yes people started giving toilet paper as gifts, partly to be funny, by partly it was a big thing for awhile and hard to get without waiting in line or getting to the stores right when they opened.

Some parts of this all have been nice in ways, but we are all ready to get back to normal life before this pandemic hit.